A rough comparison of the MC Skills, first in a simple chart form and then detailed descriptions of each.
Introduction
I’ve compiled a rough comparison of the MC Skills, first in a simple chart form and then detailed descriptions of each one. The setup for comparing these was to use them in a normal combat encounter in Shutty’s stage with Level 4 MC Skill Optimization and no custom gear or cores just because that’s what I was working with when I decided to compile this list. Your mileage will vary based on your build and which custom gear you use but this works as a baseline comparison.
MC Skill usefulness varies a lot depending on whether it’s a normal combat encounter or a boss so I’ve made two tier lists. Since MC Energy is pretty difficult to replenish, you’re probably going to want to use these solely against MC bosses, though. Explanations are in the descriptions below.
MC Skill Chart & Tier List
| MC Skill | MC Energy | Uses | Average Damage (skill type) | Normal | Boss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hydra Worms | 24% | 4 | (18 * 2or3 * 4or5) = ~200 (homing) | C | B |
| Meteo | 20% | 5 | (100 * 2or3) = ~250 (static targets) | B | C |
| Defense Shooter | 24% | 4 | (40 * 2 * 13) = ~600-1200 (manual targetting) | S | S |
| Bounce Ball | 20% | 5 | (4to8 * 50to80) = ~400 (pong ball) | B | C |
| Chill Time | 24% | 4 | 0 damage, ~7s freeze normal enemies (restrain) | D | D |
| Black Hole | 16% | 6 | (10 * 20) = ~200 per enemy (tick + 5s restrain) | A | B |
| Spyden Tackle | 16% | 6 | (15 * 25) = ~375 (static melee turret) | B | C |
| Critical Discharge | 24% | 4 | (15 * 0.5 * 15) = ~112 (crit rate up for ~12s) | C | C |
MC Skill Descriptions
Meteo (Graver) – This does target enemies but there’s a delay between activating it and the stones hitting the ground. They tend to hit 2-3 enemies for 100 each in a normal encounter with 4 enemies which is ok damage but not great. Against a boss, though, you’re less likely to get consistent damage since there’s only one target which makes them quite a bit worse against bosses. (Oh, and this skill completely breaks the non-combat virtual missions.)
Defense Shooter (Gigantic) – This is totally busted in normal encounters and against bosses. DS ends when either time runs out or you get hit 4 times (the shields in the middle), whichever occurs first, so damage output can vary greatly. In testing, though, even against a room full of aggressive enemies, I was dealing about 40 damage per bullet and there’s 2 bullets per shot and I was able to fire about 13 times which is about 1000 damage, total. So this deals insane damage AND you’re invulnerable while using it AND the MC Skill timer counts down while you’re using it so you can chain uses back-to-back-to-back. It’s *absurd*. (Oh, and this skill completely breaks the combat virtual missions.)
Bounce Ball (Faceless) – This bounces around randomly and it’s damage gets higher over time so the damage can vary a bit. In testing, it would get about 4 to 8 hits and deal about 50 to 80 damage each hit for an average of about 400 damage. The cooldown time is also super low so you can launch multiple balls and have them bounce off of each other. It’s alright in normal encounters but boss arenas are very large and there’s only one target so they’re significantly less useful against bosses.
Chill Time (Icela) – This skill doesn’t deal any damage and only freezes enemies in place. The freeze lasts about 7s against the weaker normal enemies and less time against stronger enemies. The freeze also wears off as soon as you strike an enemy which severely limits it’s usefulness. I haven’t tested it against bosses but I assume it only lasts about 3 or 4 seconds against them and it would wear off as soon as you attack them so it’s completely pointless. This one also has high MC Energy consumption. Totally useless.
Black Hole (Shutty) – It’s like Chill Time but good. It restrains enemies for about 5 seconds and does 10 tick damage for about 20 ticks. That’s only 200 damage but that’s per enemy for every enemy trapped in the black hole. Enemies can attack while they’re restrained but you can also attack them without breaking their restraint. It’s still useful against bosses but because there’s only one target the potential damage output is lower. MC Energy consumption is also unusually low.
Spyden Tackle (Spyden) – This is a turret that auto-targets anything that gets close to it and it can fairly consistently double-hit enemies on each swing as well as hit multiple enemies. It also does throwing damage when one enemy gets knocked into another. You can pretty easily kite enemies toward it in normal battles so you get a pretty consistent amount of damage with it. Bosses are a single target, though, which means you aren’t getting any of the multi-hits or throwing damage so the damage output is greatly reduced.
Critical Discharge (Lighton) – This skill just increases your crit rate for all attacks for about 12s. A crit hits for about +50% damage and with the skill active I was critting about 50% of the time, maybe a little more. The damage output is going to vary depending on your build at the time, including core buffs and equipment. In testing, I was averaging about 15 hits per 12s, with a few of them hitting multiple enemies. Overall, 15 hits at a 50%+ crit rate for 50% extra damage is a pretty low damage output and the MC Energy cost is high so it’s not very useful out of the box. I hesitate to give it a D just because certain high damage builds can probably put out some decent damage with it. Against bosses, this is a bit worse than other skills since other skills can be used without worrying about whether the boss is attacking or not. This skill is only in affect when you’re able to attack, however.
